The Only Good Liar
by XXOceanBlueXX
Summary: He was an illusionist, a riddle, a killer, and the master of deception. He lied all the way to his grave, and he never once regretted it. One-shot.


**I do not own Naruto. I had such fun writing a one-shot for Anko, that Itachi came into my mind next. The writing is mine, but the characters are not. It's not to say that in this story he's a ghost, though one is led to assume that this is after he died. I don't know how that works, you'll just have to go with it. By the way, spoilers if you haven't gotten to the part of the truth of Itachi. Oh, and not that I think Hitler is a good person to quote, but you got to admit that it really fits Itachi. ****O_o**

**OooOooO**

"_Good Liars are also good Magicians."_

_-Adolf Hitler_

He's a shadow. A shadow in the darkness. It isn't possible, and yet, he's there. The monster that shouldn't have been real but was, a scary apparition in the night. The things that nightmares themselves were made of (he could make nightmares real, could trap you in them for as long as he wanted.) A killing poison in the air, nobody saw, but felt its effects.

That was him. Uchiha Itachi.

_I don't regret a thing. My entire life, no matter how twisted it was, had as many redeeming qualities as any person of good character. Nobody could see that, because of the web that I have spun around myself. Nobody, nobody but Madara ever found their way through the sticky net._

Lies were his specialty. Good lies weren't spinning a yarn, weren't covering something up. Good lies, by a good liar, required a certain finesse. A good lie was spun in a way that was so convincing, so believable, that even someone that had known the liar since birth could not see past it. Such a lie was so good, so realistic that it was never once detected or uprooted.

Uchiha Itachi lied all the way to his grave.

_They could never figure me out. My lies were so perfectly put in place, so meticulously woven, that it became a skill. I tricked you all till the day I died, and none of you even knew it. That is, unless you have the rotten name of Madara. He's the only one who ever solved my riddles, and that's just because he's a riddle himself._

Illusions. Dictionary Look up: Something that deceives the senses or mind, e.g. by appearing to exist when it does not or _appearing to be one thing when it is in fact another. _Not only was he a master of lies, he was a master of illusions. The two went hand in hand, if you could perfect one then you could perfect the other. He did so, and he did it well.

Uchiha Itachi was an illusionist.

_I stopped counting the number of illusions a long time ago. Even the illusions that were set before me were no match. But then again, one could speak of illusions in a different manner. You could say that I was disillusioned, could speak it with pretty words. But truer lies have been told._

_I knew exactly what I was doing._

Once you've killed your family, your friends, and practically anyone that you've ever had an emotional bond with, killing is fairly simple. Not easy, simple. Killing was a new experience each time. With it came more guilt, more fading eyes. But if you didn't look at them, not one glance, then it became easier.

The conscience, once damaged, was possibly marred forever. The more you damaged it, the easier it became.

Uchiha Itachi had some major damage.

_Of course they tried to stop me. My friends, my family, the people I was closest to. Of course they tried to stop me from killing them all. They were powerless. It's not as if I was enjoying the whole scene, and there wasn't a single day that I didn't hate myself for it. But when you weigh the other possibilities of what could have happened, the cost seems so little._

He could be considered an assassin. When one thought about it, he was. He had been given an order, a specific one, to kill _this _certain people at _this _certain time. That was the job an assassin did. Assassin: a killer, especially of a political leader or other public figure.

Uchiha Itachi was a killer.

_Killing is the life of a ninja. I learned to kill, and that's just what I did. In Konoha, in the Akatsuki, and whatever I do I do well. It's rough, it's awful, and its slightly taboo but I can't help it. If the truth ever came out, I wonder what would happen? The truth of me, the other truths that could be divulged. Who knows what happened to them? To those people, who fade in history as the culprit. _

_Who in fact were decent._

He couldn't see the world as black and white. It was grey. He killed his own family to save others. He lied to his brother and tortured him. He sabotaged missions, and became part of the Akatsuiki.

Itachi Uchiha was the villain.

But he was also the good guy.

_I don't think once in my entire life I was ever one hundred percent something. There was always some other half of me that I had to keep away from others, some other half that none were to see._

You can't catch smoke and you can't catch water. Similarly, you couldn't catch Itachi. He was uncatchable, because to be caught meant the truth would come out. So he became water that could never be held, and he became a disappearing smoke. It didn't matter that he was dying on the inside, coughing his lungs up.

Uchiha Itachi was sick. Very sick.

_It didn't happen immediately. It started slowly, a slight cough that wouldn't go away. Then it became more forceful, more burning, until I realized that this wasn't just a cough. And when the blood came up, I realized that I was losing my lungs and that my perfectly laid plans were falling apart. My web of deceit was nothing if this killed me off. I had to prolong myself somehow, and it didn't matter how painful it was._

_I was a dead man walking._

Uchiha Itachi was many things, but perhaps most shocking was that he was a basket of contradictions. The one truthful liar, the killer who took no enjoyment in violence, the one master of illusions who didn't get lost in them, and the only good bad guy.

To the very end he played his part, told his lies, left his riddles. And not once did anyone realize who Itachi was through his web of deceit.

**OooOooO**

**Please leave a review. I would greatly appreciate feedback.**


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